Osaka: Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle — We made it to Osaka Castle while the sun was still up. To reach the Osaka Castle we had a long walk from the parking area to the main entrance of the castle, we passed by the Osaka Dome where many concerts are held. The ambiance and the view was really relaxing and pleasing to the eyes. It wasn’t that cold so we really took our time to stroll and enjoy the park. It was during fall when we went to Osaka, I think it will be really beautiful during Autumn or the Cherry Blossom Season. I really want to go back for the Cherry Blossom Festival. The next time I come back I will definitely follow Yuta’s Tour Itinerary.

The castle was really pretty from behind that we already took photos as soon as we saw it but the front view was a lot more beautiful, majestic and picturesque. It was mainly white colors with touches of light green and gold making it look so elegant.

By the way if you want to buy some souvenirs they have a store with a wide variety of souvenirs that you can bring home! But of course since Osaka castle is one of the famous tourist spot expect that the souvenirs are kinda expensive.

We were suppose to head to Kyoto for our dinner and hotel but Ian has been driving since 12am without sleep, he drives then tours us around. So, we decided to just change our hotel booking to a hotel in Osaka, so Ian can rest asap.

Hotel— the hotel we stayed in has a branch in Kyoto and at the same time in Osaka so we
were able to easily change our bookings. There were 15 of us but only 6 rooms were available and we only got 1 family room then the rest are single rooms that are good for one person only. Luckily the bed was spacious enough for 2 people, because of this, while checking in some were left in the parking area to hide. My uncle thought of the idea since he has checked in this hotel before. The room was good, simple and neat. The only problem we had was that the towel and toothbrush was good for one person only and we didn’t packed up those because we don’t really bring them when we’re checking-in in a hotel. So, we went out at 2am and looked for the nearest convenience store and since were in Japan we were allowed to go out with just us the youngsters, because my parents find Japan a safe country.

Dinner – Just around our hotel is the Shinesekai District where so many restaurants are open until past midnight. We opted for this Kushiage or Kushikatsu (fried food on a stick) place where you can eat as much as you can for two hours, so ordering and finishing your food quick is a must! Since you can’t order the next batch if you’re not yet done with your first order. There’s 15 of us so we divided ourselves into 2 groups, Anri’s and Ian’s group.

Ian and Anri will be the one ordering food and its funny how Anri orders skillfully in just the right time that there was never a time that our table was empty unlike in Ian’s table, they always look at our table and drool over our food. I remember them saying “Why do they already have their food and we don’t have yet” and “They have so many food”.

So what we ate were fried pork, fish, seafoods, veggies and even fruits. I remember ordering so many salmon because it was my favorite and it was really delicious. I can’t get tired of eating it maybe I ate around atleast 20 sticks of Salmon and my second favorite was the fried octopus. I really eat a lot of octopus when I’m out of the country since we only have squids here in Philippines. I remember eating alive small octopus in South Korea. 

Strolling – the restaurants around our area was already closing, luckily we still got some time to take pictures it was late at night but the area was all light up with cool exterior designs of each restaurant.